More Miscellaneous Measures Trivia Quiz

Answer: 112

Sago is not to everyone's taste, but I like it. Often confused with tapioca, it is a starchy food made from the pith of certain palm trees and is apparently a staple in the diet of people in Malaysia and parts of Indonesia where it grows best. Today you can order bags of sago from Thailand, but sizes have been metricated.

A 50 kg bag would be almost the same weight as the imperial weight "Bag" listed in my book. The clue is that 112 lb is called a hundredweight, and there are twenty hundredweight in a ton.

Answer: 200

The clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum) originally grew in the Molluccas of Indonesia, and the market was dominated by the Portuguese, Dutch and finally French, who were able to grow it in Mauritius and Zanzibar. The clove that you buy now is the dried bud from the clove tree. When I was young, my mother had me bite on a clove to cure or at least alleviate my toothache. Cigarettes made by blending cloves with tobacco are very popular in Indonesia, and are called kretek cigarettes from the crackling noise they make when rolled between the fingers.

A conventional tea chest, for comparison, is 20 by 20 by 20 inches, which is about 29 gallons. Oddly, my book says a Chest of Tea contains 84 gallons.

Answer: 14

The use of peck as a measure has pretty well gone out of fashion these days, except perhaps in selling apples. The word stone is intended as a clue as, at least in Britain, 14 pounds make a stone - usually used in describing personal weights. For instance I currently weigh 13 stone 7 pounds.

The term "stone ground flour" is a coincidence in this context; it refers to flour that has been ground in the traditional way between two stones.

Answer: 56

Barley is a grain of the grass family, the ear being distinguished from other grains by its long "whiskers". Barley grains are sold wholesale by volume, most often for use in the brewing trade, barley being the basis of most beers. The drink called barley wine is misnamed, as it is a very strong ale.

The malt in malt whisky is fermented barley. You can also make non-alcoholic barley water whose only use is said to be as a health drink.

Answer: 37½

The cran was formally defined in 1852 and refers to herring after they have been landed but before they have been processed. Normally after unloading the herrings are put into boxes which are also called crans. The clue here is the word fraction, as the answer is the only one that contains a fraction.

The word is said to come from the Gaelic word crann meaning a lot, possibly the share of catch due to each crew member.

Answer: 128

Used extensively in North America, the term refers to wood neatly stacked for winter fuel. It might be 4 ft deep by 8 ft long by 4 ft high, or any other combination that comes to a volume of 128 cu Ft. Which reminds me of an exhibit I saw in Tate Modern Museum (of modern art) a few years ago that consisted solely of 120 house bricks arranged neatly. Created by the US artist Carl Andre, the arrangement when I saw it was 6 by 10 by 2.

It created a lot of controversy. Perhaps blocks of wood would have been more acceptable.

The word cord is said to derive from when wood was carried in a bundle tied with a cord, but you'd have to be pretty strong to carry a bundle of 128 cu ft.

Answer: 60

My estimate: if brandy weighs much the same as water and "a pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter" then a gallon weighs around 10 pounds. So a hogshead of 60 gallons must weigh around 600 pounds. Impossible to carry, but possible to roll in a big barrel.

The amount in a hogshead is specific to the type of liquid held. For instance, a hogshead of beer contains 64 gallons. The name "hogshead" is of uncertain origin, possibly an corruption of a Nordic word meaning ox, but that doesn't get us any further does it?

Answer: 9

A firkin is a kind of small barrel or keg holding 9 imperial gallons or 72 pints.

A "nonet" of course is a group of nine things usually used in referring to musicians or a musical composition.

Answer: 36

Hay, used for feeding livestock, is usually sold in rectangular or cylindrical bales, the modern equivalent of trusses. In autumn one sees harvested fields dotted with such "swiss rolls" of hay. An old horse-drawn cart carrying 36 trusses might be full, but modern trucks are seen carrying hundreds of bales.

Whether the trusses were squared or not, 36 is a square number.

Answer: 144

The word "hide" is used in referring to animal skins, before they are turned to leather by tanning. It is also a unit of land area, but that is not what I meant here. My dictionary (yes, the 1933 one) defines last in the sense of a measurement as a weight of about 4000 lb, but varying according to the stuff being measured. Pepys' diary refers to a "last of Stockholm tar", but this obviously is a weight or volume rather than a simple number. I can find no other reference to a "Last of hides", so the clue of a gross would have been vital to you I guess.